Purpose
This study aimed to identify the mediating effect of fatigue in the relationship between clinical nurses’ job stress and medication safety performance.
Methods
For this cross-sectional study, 122 registered nurses were recruited through convenience sampling. The results were collected from August to September 2020 using self-reported structured questionnaires, analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0 and using descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, one-way analysis of variance and Pearson correlation coefficient, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The mediating effect was analyzed using PROCESS macro with a 95.0% bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval (5,000 bootstraps re-sampling).
Results
Significant positive correlation was observed between job stress and fatigue (r=.57, p<.001). Significant negative correlations were observed between job stress and medication safety performance (r=-.27, p=.003), fatigue, and medication safety performance (r=-.55, p<.001). Fatigue has a mediating effect between job stress and medication safety performance in nurses (indirect effect=-0.11, 95% Boot confidence interval=-0.16~-0.07).
Conclusion
To improve the medication safety performance of clinical nurses who experience job stress and fatigue, early detection and periodic observation of nurses’ job stress and fatigue should be made. Moreover, job stress and fatigue should be considered together in devising relevant interventions.

Citations

• Factors influencing job stress in pediatric nurses during the pandemic period: Focusing on fatigue, pediatric nurse−parent partnership
  Bo Yeong Jeon, Sun Jeong Yun, Hye Young Kim
  Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing.2024;[Epub]     CrossRef
• Comparison of methods for testing mediation effects under structural equation modeling framework: Percentile bootstrap and bias-corrected bootstrap
  Mikyung Sim, Youngsuk Suh, Su-Young Kim
  The Korean Journal of Psychology: General.2022; 41(2): 103.     CrossRef